


Ectober oneshots

by Sorenalice



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Angst, Halloween, Horror, ectober
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-08
Updated: 2014-01-07
Packaged: 2018-01-07 23:07:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1125462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sorenalice/pseuds/Sorenalice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Collection of oneshots for Ectober. Ghost Hunger, Blood Blossoms, Revenge, Dissection, Ghost Story, Dia de los Muertos, All Hallow's Eve. Some content may be disturbing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ghost Hunger

**Author's Note:**

> I kinda’ wanted to write something Father/Son-ish because Danny and Vlad’s relationship could’ve been immensely complex and I like to think that Danny did go to Vlad whenever he had a problem of the ghostly nature. Constructive criticism is appreciated. Better late than never. Hope you enjoy.

Ghost Hunger

Hot pain suddenly ripped through his stomach, his eyesight blurred and the world seemed to stop. As soon as the sensation came, it left, leaving Danny shaking and sweating in his seat as the Ghost Assault Vehicle rumbled forward. His Mother had taken over driving the GAV as soon as his Father had taken out a few caution cones.   
Danny was not happy to be on this road trip for two reasons. The first, being the destination-Vlad’s. That fruit loop had invited the Fentons over to his mansion in Wisconsin for the weekend. He’d said it was because “ They all needed a vacation from the ghosts.” or something like that. And, after about an hour of pouting, uncomfortable staring, and not-so-subtle attempts at manipulation, Jack had managed to convince Maddie to let them all go. So, now Danny was stuck with his archenemy for a whole weekend. And on top of that, the second reason he was unhappy.  
Danny’s stomach had been hurting on and off for the whole day, gradually getting worse. He was extremely hungry, but every time he’s eaten something his stomach felt completely, painfully full, but underneath that there was a hungry void. He’d just wanted to stay at home, in his bed getting over whatever it was that he had.  
Unfortunately, that was not the case, because the tall, looming outline of Vlad’s mansion was getting closer and closer. While Danny’s hope for ever escaping this situation was getting smaller and smaller.  
Vlad opened up the door as the family stepped out of the GAV and onto the asphalt. Jack bounded up the stairs to embrace Vlad in a suffocating hug, while Maddie and Jazz walked up behind him and Danny had hung back by the GAV, determined to stay away from Vlad, and recover.  
“Ah, the Fentons! How nice to see you all! But, where is Daniel?” Vlad asked in a sweetly fake tone. Jack looked back at the GAV, and ran back to grab Danny and drag him up the stairs.  
\---  
Danny was laying in the most comfortable bed in existence, fighting through another bout of agony. He hadn’t eaten dinner, it would’ve only made the pain worse. It was barely a tingle that morning, but now he couldn’t hold back whimpers.   
He couldn’t fall asleep because of the spasms, not even the sleeping pills he’d taken had helped any. He hid the extent of his condition from his family, and he obviously didn’t say anything to Vlad, that would just be asking for it. He was alone in this.  
\---  
Vlad flew down the hallway in ghost form, where he knew Danny was sleeping, smiling to himself with pride in his recently hatched plan to get Maddie, Daniel, and Jasmine to join him and leave Jack. He’d given up on trying to kill Jack, wasn’t it crueler to make him watch as his beloved family leaves him for a better man? He stopped his musing when he head a stifled scream coming from one of the bedrooms. He darted to the bedroom it came from and phased through the door invisibly.  
He saw Daniel, thrashing and clenching his teeth through a fit of pain, his eyes glowing bright green. Vlad turned visible and called out to him, but the boy hadn’t even noticed his ghost sense go off. Vlad rushed to Danny’s bedside and tried to get him to lay down and relax.  
Danny had finally realized that there was another person there as the torture subsided. They were lasting longer now, and it was starting to feel like he’d gone ten rounds with the Specter Deflector. The person gently pushed him back down into his bed and said something. Who is it? he thought What- His thought was cut off by the realization that it was Vlad comforting him.  
“W-what do you want, F-fruit loop?” he asked, wincing at the weakness of it.  
“Daniel, what’s wrong?” Vlad said with concern and a hint of an eyeroll at the nickname.  
“N-nothing’s wrong. Nightmare.”   
“You can't be serious, Daniel, your eyes were open.”  
“I s-sleep with my eyes open.”  
“Daniel, I know for a fact that you do not sleep with your eyes open. Now tell me what is wrong.”  
Danny huffed in defeat, and looked at Vlad, deciding if he could trust him or not. Vlad truly looked concerned, his face was pulled into an expression of a worried parent. Danny thought for a moment before sighing and explaining.  
“It’s been going on all d-day. It started as just stomach rumbling, but it’s g-gotten a lot worse. I tried to eat breakfast, but if felt like I was so full I was about to explode. I’m still s-so hungry, but anything I eat makes me feel worse.”  
Vlad’s eyes widened as realized what was happening.  
“Daniel-” Vlad began before he cut himself off, contemplating what to say. “ You know how ghosts’ cores produce their own ectoplasm?” Danny nodded with a confused look.  
“ Well, you see, Daniel” a long pause “ Our cores are different than normal ghost cores. Because we are only half-ghost, our cores are only half-formed.  
They don’t perform many tasks that full-ghost cores do, for instance, making enough of their own ectoplasm. They do make ectoplasm, but a ghost could not survive on it.   
It is a fact that our bodies change what we crave so we can better satisfy its needs. I read an article once about a man who was lost at sea in a lifeboat for a few months, he survived by catching fish, but fish meat does not have enough nutrients in it to keep a human alive, the skin and the eyes of fish, however, are nutrient rich. The man started craving the skin and the eyes in the body’s desperate bid to get what it needed. And that is exactly what your body is doing right now. You aren’t getting enough ectoplasm, and your body is rejecting all other forms of sustenance until you get enough ectoplasm.”  
Danny looked up at Vlad with wide eyes.  
“S-so how do we get ectoplasm?”  
Vlad sighed heavily, he’d been dreading this part.  
“We have to feed.” he said simply  
“W-what? What are we feeding on?”  
“Other ghosts.” he paused when he saw Danny’s horrified face.  
“There is a reason, Daniel, that most ghosts fear me, and why the smart ones fear you, if they haven’t met you. We only have to feed a few times a year, luckily, but we do have to eat other ghosts. Small, hardly sentient ones are the best to eat.”  
Danny was shell shocked.  
“Y-you’re saying I have to eat another ghost to make this stop? Vlad, I-I can’t do that. I can’t-”  
“I know, Little Badger, but you must.” Vlad said sadly  
“H-how do I know you’re not lying to me?”  
“Just ask anyone in the Ghost Zone. I can call up Skulker right now.”  
Danny seemed to wilt as he heard Vlad’s certainty that Skulker would back him up on this. That hunter was nothing, if not brutally honest and annoyingly overconfident. Vlad, seeing Danny’s resignation, spoke up.  
“I can feed you, if you like.” Danny looked up at Vlad in surprise  
“I have quite a few smaller ghosts contained in my secret lab for this purpose. You can eat here, now, and the next time you’re hungry you can fly back here. Any disagreement we had will be put on hold until you return to your home. Do we have a deal?”  
Danny blinked up at Vlad. Before his stomach rumbled again, a sign of an incoming fit.  
“We’ve got a deal. L-let’s get this over with.”  
\---  
Once down in the lab, Vlad fished a few small ghosts out of a large tank and set them in front of Danny.  
Danny’s mind went blank. The world around him blurred into a mess of indiscernible scents, noises, and colors. The only thing he could see clearly was the rat-like ghosts in front of him. And they smelled like apple pie on a rainy day.  
No longer able to control himself, he lunged forward and ripped into them. Ectoplasm squirted from his mouth as he tore them apart and devoured each one whole.  
Vlad winced, he remembered being as hungry as Danny once. He knew exactly what was going to come of this. Self-hate for eating ghosts, relief from the torment of needing to eat ghosts, more self-hate for feeling relieved, dread for needing to eat more ghosts in the future. It was a disgusting, self-perpetuating cycle created by a moron trying to rip a hole between dimensions.   
Danny had finished the rats off in only a few minutes. He cried out with relief from the torture of ghost hunger. He slumped over in the ectoplasm that had dripped all over him. He sobbed. And Vlad held him, rubbing his back and trying to comfort the only other one like him.  
Not after long, Danny fell asleep in Vlad’s arms. Vlad gently lifted him up and carried him carefully back into his room. He set him down in his bed, and pulled the covers up to his chin and tucked him in.   
“ Goodnight, Little Badger” he whispered as he walked out of the room


	2. Blood Blossoms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So I’m gonna try a torture fic. Gonna be pretty gory, so I suggest you don’t read this one if you can’t handle that kind of thing. Also working under the headcanon that every time Danny is electrocuted, he has flashbacks to the accident. (Or ghosts relive their deaths when confronted with the way they died, like flashbacks.) Also, referring to Danny as ‘it’ when it is mostly Maddie or Jack thinking/acting because I am a sick human being.

They tied it down with thick, glowing metal cuffs around its wrists and ankles. They unzipped its jump suit to the beltline, and pinned it back onto the table. He pulled out a tray carrying all of the instruments necessary for a dissection. “Let’s wait a bit, Hun. We should ask it some questions before we get to testing.” She suggested. He nodded and set the tray down on a rolling cart. They sat in their chairs and waited.  
\---  
Danny woke up to the worst headache imaginable. He groaned loudly and heard someone beside him grunt. He tried to pull his hands up to cradle his pounding head, but he found that he couldn’t. He jerked his hands a few times before giving up when he started bruising. He opened his eyes and was greeted by a harsh spotlight glaring down at him. he blinked a few times before he was shadowed by two figures standing over him.  
“Wh-what’s-” he was cut off by a familiar feminine voice  
“No questions from you, ghost.”  
Oh. That’s why the voice was so familiar. It was Mom, which made the other-  
“ Now, ghost kid, we’ve got some questions for you about ghosts. And you’re gonna answer them.”  
Danny stared at him, “What makes you think so?” he boldly asked  
“This.” his Father said simply as he pushed a small red button.  
A thousand volts of raw, hot electricity tore through him. His body seized up and his mind went black. You’ve gotta check it out. Pain. You’re right. He was being ripped apart. Who knows what cool things could exist on the other side of that portal. Screaming. The feel of a button giving way underneath his fingers.  
His Father released the button and sat down beside the table Danny was strapped to.  
A single, unnoticed tear leaked out of his eye.  
“So, Phantom, how did you die?” his Mother asked with a hard, clinical edge to her voice.  
Once his breathing had come back down to normal, he started   
“I was electrocuted. It was an accident.”  
He heard the scratching of a pen on paper before his mother asked another question  
“When did you die?”  
“ About a year ago.” This made Maddie and jack stop. This ghost was only a year old. He was already one of the most powerful ghosts out there and his core was still immature, he was still growing. The thought of Phantom being more powerful than he already was made them shiver. Faintly, in the back of their minds, they felt sorry for the ghost, who had died so young and so recently.  
The questions continued for the better part of an hour, with Phantom being shocked five more times. They moved on to the dissection.  
\---  
They had removed a sample of the “liver” they’d found. The rest was just made of ectoplasm, anyway, and they could always go back and get some more now that they had the source. They’d had to muzzle Phantom not even five minutes into the procedure because it was screaming so much and they didn’t want to wake up Jazz. Phantom was staring blankly at the ceiling from behind the mask that covered the lower half of his face and wrapped stiffly around the back of his head, with-what was that? Sweat? Tears? No, ghosts can’t cry- dripping from his face.  
“Hey-Mads, I’ve got an idea.”  
“Yes, Jack?”  
“Well, one of my ancestors, John Fenton-Nightingale discovered a way to keep ghosts trapped. I’ve heard stories about it all my life, but now we have a chance to test it.”  
“What is it?”  
“Blood Blossoms.”They heard Phantom grunt and struggle.  
They’re these flowers that look a lot like roses. Ghosts can’t even stand being near them.”  
“Where are we going to get some blood blossoms right now, Jack? It’s almost midnight.”  
“I saw some in the flower shop. They were outside. We could go in, grab ‘em, leave some cash, then go.”  
“I don’t know, Jack. I don’t want to break any laws.”  
“C’mon Mads! We’d leave money and everything.I’ve wanted to test this since I was little.”  
Maddie smiled at her childish husband with a small smile on her face.   
“Alright, Jack. You go get them. I’ll stay here and clean up a little bit.”  
“Okay Mads. Be back in a few.” He bounded happily up the steps from the lab as Maddie turned and started wiping Phantom’s ectoplasm into the drain. Phantom tried yelling something to her, but she ignored it, if she’d heard it at all.  
\---  
When Jack had returned and Maddie had finished cleaning, they sat down and took some final notes on their experiment before Jack ran upstairs to grab the huge, darkly colored bush, covered in dark red, almost purple flowers. Maddie was poised to take notes on Phantom’s reaction.  
They immediately got one. Phantom started grunting and twisting, trying to get away from the discomfort. The closer Jack came with the bush, the more Phantom struggled. Jack was one foot away from Phantom, and it was screaming, red smoke was slowly rising from its body.   
Maddie clipped a flower off and dropped it onto Phantom’s exposed skin. Its skin bubbled and burned. The sickly sweet smell of burnt ectoplasm wafted through the air. Maddie removed the blossom and clipped others, laying them around the edge of the room. Luckily, Phantom hadn’t noticed.   
Maddie and Jack walked over to the control desk in a corner of the lab and released Phantom. The muzzle clattered to the floor with a loud clang and Phantom tumbled off of the table. It balanced itself weakly against the table, and looked at Maddie and Jack.  
“Y-you’re letting me go?”  
They said nothing, and made their way upstairs. Glancing at the clock on her way up, Maddie sighed. It was 7 am. Her children were already up. Or, at least, Jazz was.   
Jazz was sitting at the kitchen table eating toast and reading a book by the time they got up there.   
“Is your brother up?” Maddie asked. Jazz swallowed her toast nervously and replied “Yeah. He already left for school. He wanted to ask a teacher something”  
Maddie nodded and started making some coffee. She poured herself a cup and sat down.  
A loud, horrific scream shook through the house. Jazz dropped her coffee and, before Maddie could stop her, sprinted into the basement.   
Jazz locked the lab door, turned around and saw her brother with a poorly stitched gaping hole in his chest leaking ectoplasm, red tendrils of smoke curling from his shaking body. His screams were scratchy and hoarse.  
She ran forward and pulled him into the center of the lab, away from another source of red smoke, the blossoms.  
“Danny-Danny y-you have to tell me what to do. What hurts?”  
“Y-you have to destroy them. The f-flowers.” he said in a pathetic, barely audible, cracking voice.  
Jazz looked around for an invention that could get rid of the flowers. She spotted some gasoline in a heap of junk that Jack had used to power some inventions that couldn’t run on ectoplasm. She rooted around in some drawers before finding a matchbox. She ran around the room and poured the gasoline on the flowers and quickly lit a match and threw it down. The fire raged on, luckily not lighting the metal walls of the lab. Danny had recovered from the flowers, but was still tortured by the Y-shaped scar that was slowly closing over his chest.  
“Are you alright, Danny?”  
“Y-yeah, Jazz. I’m fine. Let’s get out of here.” Danny stood up and limped over to his sister, put a hand on her shoulder, and phased her out of the house.   
Maddie and Jack saw the smoke coming from under the doorway to the lab and called the fire department. Fentonworks was saved, but Jazz and Danny avoided their parents from then on. Danny stopped speaking around them, and Jazz gave them cold glare whenever they spoke about ghosts.


	3. Revenge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of Valerie because Val is amazing and she is one of the more versatile characters that can be either good or evil. Quite a bit of described gore in this one. I found out that I really like writing gore, so this is gonna be very depressing. Like actually holy shit this ended up being way, way darker than I thought it was going to be. (reposting b/c I originally posted it at like 6 am and I have no idea if it actually posted correctly)

Valerie stood over the twitching body of her most hated enemy. Public Ghost Enemy #1. She had gotten a new weapon earlier that day that was supposed to “shock a ghost into submission”, or so the note said. It looked like a regular old shock collar, like what was used with noisy dogs.   
Phantom whimpered in pain, and Valerie pressed the button again, sending him into another fit of spasms and screams. She released the button and he stopped screaming, breathing very hard and coughing up bright green ectoplasm.  
“I’ve come for you Phantom. You ruined my life. Now I’m gonna ruin yours” her voice was strong with conviction. Phantom’s breathing evened out and he coughed twice before responding.  
“ I never meant to hurt anyone. Least of all you.” His voice was thin and weak, popping every so often as he twitched with the electricity still coursing through his body.  
“No- sure you didn’t. But that doesn’t matter much anymore, because I’ve got you, Ghost. And it is a public service getting you scum off the streets.”  
“Whatever happened to respecting the dead?” Phantom laughed weakly. Valerie punched the button again and he screamed.  
“You’re not worth respecting. You lost that when you refused to die. How could anyone be so stubborn? You’re gonna stay here for eternity just so you can obsess over something?”  
Phantom only stared at her. It was a dry stare. An ‘are you kidding me’ kind of stare.  
“Look who’s talking. You’re the one who is obsessing over hunting a teenager and a dog because of something nobody could control. Your dad’s boss put that dog down, and he came back for his squeaky toy. I was just trying to train him so he wouldn’t destroy anything else.” Valerie twitched and glared at him.  
“Nice try, ghost, you’re not getting out of this that easily.” She pushed the button again, and held it down for a minute. Phantom’s screams were starting to cut out. His voice was going, she realized. And behind her mask, Valerie grinned. She knew exactly what she was going to to do him. He panted heavily and tried weakly to crawl away from her. She put a foot on his back, and pushed him into the dirt. She held him there, too weak to fight and tied him to her board. She headed off in the direction of her lair.  
\---  
Once she’d arrived at her lair, she chained Phantom up to a wall, and got to work.  
\---  
“God bless Google” Valerie mumbled as she shut down her computer. She had double checked her method, and gotten the supplies she needed for tonight. She’d gone to school, of course, and gotten her supplies afterward. A spike, some disinfectant, bandages, and a map of the skull, throat, and brain. She returned to her lair, itching to finally get her revenge.  
She was going in through the throat first. Better to go there first, rather than mess with his brain, too many things could go wrong that way. She walked up to him, he was still unconscious from the electrocution the night before. She kicked him in the side.  
“Wake up, Phantom. I’ve got things to do.” he stirred only slightly. Valerie frowned and pressed the shock collar’s button. He yelped and woke up quickly, blinking around at his surroundings.   
“V-val?” he started before wincing at his own voice. Valerie smiled.  
“I’m glad you’re up. I want you to be awake for this.” She pinned his head back, glanced at the map of the throat. She picked up the spike and raised it to the right spot. Phantom’s eyes widened and he started fighting, but he was too weak to throw her off.  
“Hold still Phantom, I’m not killing you,”   
She blindly jabbed the spike into his neck and he opened his mouth in a scream, but no noise came out. She pulled the spike out and bandaged the wound. Phantom was completely still. The word ‘shock’ came to her mind. Phantom looked up at her and tried to say something before he put a hand up to his throat and grimaced. She smiled.  
“Maybe this’ll teach you to stop telling lies.” She shocked him out of consciousness, and unchained him. She had finally gotten her revenge. She had silenced the Phantom. No more annoying, witty banter for that ghost. His vocal cords were gone, hopefully forever. There was always a chance of him healing, but it would take some time.  
Valerie flew away on her hoverboard, enjoying a simple pleasure that Phantom wouldn’t be able to do for a while. She was laughing.


	4. Dissection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I already did one dissection by his parents so why not the Guys In White? Maybe a little bit of Vlad rescuing Danny because I ship that father/son relationship so hard. Also, a little bit of friend abandonment because it wouldn’t be angst without that. And gore, we cannot forget the gore. The topic is dissection, of course there’s gonna be a lot of gore. I also seem to really like muting Danny and I feel kinda bad about it. Dr. Y because Y-incision. That was a really dark pun, I’m sorry. I realize that Danny would probably try to keep everything a secret from Vlad, but I’m just gonna go with him not having anyone to talk to for two months and say that he was venting and ranting about everything. he would probably also say some sarcastic comments, but this is already torturing him enough, I didn’t want to go overboard. Thank you very much and I hope you enjoy.

He had been missing for two years, and Vlad had finally found him. The facility he’d been in was recently abandoned because of a chemical spill that nearly destroyed half of the building.  
And they just left him there! Vlad thought angrily. He flew through the labyrinth of hallways with a small figure draped over his back. His temper rising inch by inch into dangerous levels with each passing minute.   
The front doors broke open with a hot blast sent towards them. He soared out into the crisp, night air and growled in his rage. Rocketing back towards his home in Wisconsin, Vlad nearly broke his personal record for speed.  
\---  
Danny woke up warm. That was odd enough in itself, but he was comfy too. He hadn’t been comfortable in years. His eyes snapped open when something beside him rustled and he bolted upright and away from the shuffling. His eyes quickly shifted from place to place, absorbing his surroundings and looking for any threats. The only semblance of a threat was a very surprised looking Vlad Masters sitting in a chair with a newspaper.  
“Good morning, Daniel. Did you sleep well?” Danny stayed silent and stared at him with wide eyes.   
Vlad sighed at this, and folded his newspaper.  
“I rescued you from the facility when I heard that the GIW had vacated a lab and left the experiments. Do you want to tell me what happened?” Danny blinked at Vlad a few times before responding in a scratchy voice.  
“Why?”  
“Because, Daniel, It will not only be therapeutic for you, but it will also help me put a case against the GIW for torture and abuse of a sentient being.” Danny stayed silent a few moments before he began.  
\---  
I was in a cage in the back of a van. They’d tied me up and gagged me in human form with phase-proof chains and gag, and tossed me in. It was small and cramped. There was a towel on the bottom of the cage, and a bottle of water. I was in the center of the van, and there were benches surrounding it. In each bench sat two GIW agents, all armed to the teeth, with glowing guns facing me.   
We rumbled along like that for a few hours. Me, hunched uncomfortably over in a small metal cage, and them, aiming their charged ectoguns at me.  
When we arrived, they tazed me into unconsciousness and moved me into some kind of room.  
There was a thin mattress on the floor in one corner with a stiff, scratchy, white blanket and a cloth bag sewn closed filled with plastic grocery bags. They had changed my clothes into some plain white scrubs. Tied tightly around my ankle was a thick, gray plastic anklet. It was digging into my skin and blocking off circulation into my foot. There was a small screen on the side that flashed, in one corner lights of different colors, in another corner, some numbers that kept changing, and in the bottom half, a large black box that said ‘ON’.  
On the wall of a room was a long, tall mirror that was probably a one-way window. There was what looked like a prison toilet attached to the wall beside the window. The walls were all white, and the door was a light gray.  
A tall woman, dressed in white came into the room.  
“Welcome, entity 00168, AKA, Phantom. I am Agent B, your handler. You are going to be imprisoned here indefinitely, without trial to be contained and used for experimentation on half-human beings.” She paused her monotone dialogue and shifted into a more friendly tone with a small smile.  
“So, Phantom. When did you ‘die’?” She pulled out a clipboard and a pen and tapped on it eagerly.  
“uh- I- a-a few months ago. August 27th.” I replied, stuttering with confusion at the sudden change in demeanor. She stuck her tongue out a little and hummed as she scratched in the date.  
“And, forgive me, I know this is a bit sensitive, but, How did you ‘die’, exactly?” She looked apologetically down at me, her tongue returned to its position outside her mouth.  
“E-electrocution” I said shivering at the memory of millions of volts of electricity and ecto-energy flowing into my body. She nodded and scratched it in again.  
“Do you have any known allergies? Like peanuts, or dairy, or something?” her voice was thick and sugary.  
“Uh. No. Not that I know of. Why?”  
“We need to know so we don’t kill you with your dinner and possibly mess up an experiment. Now, before you ask any questions, I should tell you a bit more about why you’re here.   
You are here to help the GIW learn more about ghosts and to test weapons the GIW makes. If you cannot be tested on any more, for whatever reason, you will still be contained. It would be irresponsible of us to just let a ghost go. Think of this as a summer camp. No contact with the outside world, just science fun!” She finished with a fistpump into the empty air and a wide, fake smile. I stared at her with a flat look, blinking slowly.  
She cleared her throat and looked down, blushing a little.   
“I’m going to be taking care of you. I’m the one who controls what happens to you, and when. I hope we can get along alright. Because I decide when you eat and what your punishments are if you misbehave or talk back. Any questions?”  
I had questions. I had thousands of questions. Most of them were poorly-hidden insults aimed at her and the GIW. But, apparently, this lady controls my every move while I’m here. It’s probably better to not make her hate me.   
“How did you find out about me?” I went the safe way. She smiled and replied,  
“We got a tip from some teenagers. They said they knew you.”   
My stomach dropped and my mind went blank. Who was it. There were only three people that I know of that knew my secret. But-they wouldn’t. Would they? We’ve been drifting apart lately because I’m off fighting ghosts all the time and can’t hang out with them. when I have been able to be with them, they were short and their smiles seemed fake. Could they have-?  
“Who?”   
“Oh, uh- a girl and a boy. We didn’t take their names.” So that was it. It was probably Sam and Tucker. They are the only ones who know. But-why? What did I do?  
The Lady hummed and looked down at her clipboard.  
“Alright. That’s the basic info done with. Now we just need your basic health stats and you can be officially welcomed into the facility.”  
She flipped to another page and opened the cell door. A tall man with a sharp beard in a labcoat and argyle sweater stepped in, pulling a cart of medical supplies after him.  
“Hello, there Phantom. I’m Dr. Y. I’m your doctor. We’ve just got some basic tests to run. Just like a physical.”  
The doctor got to work measuring my stats. All of them were typical of a person who was half-dead. Low temp, BP,BPM, all that stuff. Agent B escorted Dr. Y out of the room and turned back to me.  
“ Now that we’ve got all of that out of the way, I can officially welcome you to the facility. Stay close to me, now, wouldn’t want you getting hurt”  
She helped me up and walked towards the door and opened it, motioning me out.  
I walked silently behind her and she chattered on about all of the different rooms and what they were for. She brought me into a room and sat me down in a steel chair. Cuffs latched themselves around my ankles and wrists. I struggled against them until Agent B put a hand on my shoulder.  
“Calm down, Phantom. We’re just restraining you so you don’t run.” her voice was dangerous and sweet sounding. I stopped struggling, but I was still breathing hard.  
A man walked into the room carrying a bag. He set the bag on a table nearby and pulled something out and plugged it into the wall. he produced a white sheet from the bag and wrapped it around my neck, so that it covered my body. He turned around and picked up the thing he had plugged into the wall.   
Shears. He was holding shears. What. He moved closer and turned them on.  
“Hold still, 00168. I don’t want to cut into your head.” Oh. He was gonna-. The man put the shears down to my head and began shaving away. My black hair fell on the white sheet in clumps. He was shaving my head. Why? I would look terrible with a shaved head, why-?  
He had shorn off all of my hair, leaving short, black stubble behind.  
He set the shears down and pulled something else out of his bag. It looked like a gun. But instead of a barrel it was a needle, and instead of a cartridge it was black ink. Was that a tattoo-? No. No way. They were not gonna-. My thought was cut off when he wrenched my head away from him and a sharp, stabbing pain ripped its way through my neck.  
They were marking me. I was now officially property of the GIW. This is not a future that I wanted for myself, to be honest. An astronaut, even the Manager of the Nasty Burger seems like a better choice than ‘Government property’.  
The man finished and looked at Agent B. She nodded. He looked down at me with an almost sorry expression. He started unbuttoning my shirt and pulled it off of my shoulders. I shrank away from his touch and looked at him in terror. What was he doing? Why was this happening? Why me? He forced me to lean forward where I sat, exposing my back to the world. He shuffled behind me and a burning, searing, excruciating pain sizzled on my skin. I was a lot less resistant to high temperatures since I became half-ghost but this was ridiculous. The smell of burnt skin drifted into my nose and blood dribbled down my back. My healing kicked in and the pain was gone after a few minutes, but my skin felt tight on my back. I sat up and saw what they’d done in the mirror they held up for me.   
They branded me. On my back in large, red letters it read: “ GIW:00168” and a line below that, in smaller print; “Government property”.   
It was official. I no longer had a life of my own. Tattoos could at least be removed. I wasn’t so sure about brands. Agent B unchained me and picked me up. She dragged me out the door and back into the room with the bed.  
“Here you go Phantom. Let me know, next time, if you want a book, or something.”  
Before I could respond, she slammed the door shut, leaving me alone in the blank white room. I sat down on the mattress and fell asleep.  
\---  
I woke up and was nearly blinded by the bright light above me. I went to move my hand to block the light but I couldn’t. I looked down at my arm and saw that I was chained to a table of some kind. My stomach twisted into knots at this discovery. Dr. Y stood over me.   
“Good morning, Phantom!” he said grinning down at me.   
“We’re just going to do a little dissection today and then you can go back to your room, alright?” I tried to respond, but my voice wouldn’t respond. Dr. Y noticed this and explained,  
“We tested a new weapon on you while you were sleeping. It was supposed to silence ghost noise. Since you are in your ghost form right now, that includes your voice. We can’t have you screaming, now. Glad to see it works.” He trailed off as he turned away and picked up a scalpel from a tray.  
I tried inching away, screaming, fighting, anything, but Y put a cold, gloved hand firmly on my bared chest and held me down. He cut into my flesh. My skin separated easily under his knife. He sliced a neat Y-shape into my chest, oozing with green and red blood.   
My skin was peeled back and my muscles were exposed. He ripped through these with ease, and pulled them back too. If I hadn’t been silenced, my voice would’ve left me. I’ve heard that can happen. People losing their voices because they scream too much. What am I doing? I’m being dissected. Why am I thinking about all of the ways to go mute? Jazz would call it disassociating or something.   
I heard a loud snap coming from my chest and pain rocketed through my system. Dr. Y held up one of my ribs and examined it. He set it down on a tray beside him. Fuzzy darkness began to eat away at my vision. The last thing I felt was something touching my heart.  
\---  
It went on like that for months. Earlier on there was more dissections, but in the later months it was mostly just weapons testing. They shot me with something that was supposed to make ghosts fall asleep, I fell asleep. It went on for two years. I hadn’t seen the light of day for two whole years when I heard an alarm bell ringing. Agent B had been talking to me, she was the only source of human interaction that I had. She looked up with a grim look on her face.   
“There’s been a lab accident. We’re being ordered to evacuate.”  
I stood up and offered her my wrists so she could take me out of my cell. B got this sad, heartbroken look on her face, and shook her head.   
“No, Phantom. You’re not coming with.”  
“Wha-but we’re being evacuated.”  
“Only the staff. Protocol is that we leave the experiments in their cells.”  
“What? So you’re just gonna leave me here to die!?”  
“I’m sorry, Phantom. You were a good kid. Who knows, maybe it won’t be so bad. You might live.” And with that, she turned and marched out the door. I heard the lock click into place before I fell back down onto my mattress. I shifted into ghost form to have a better chance of survival.   
I stayed, locked in that room for two months. No food, no water, nothing, luckily I don’t need any of that in ghost form. They forgot about me. I fell asleep for what I thought was going to be the last time.  
\---  
“... And then I woke up here…” Vlad nodded and wiped away some of his tears.  
Vlad leaned forward and held Danny in a tight embrace.   
“I’m never gonna let you go again, Little Badger.”


	5. Ghost Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea what I’m doing. I just wanted to put that out there. Any way, a Dash fic. Because who doesn’t love Dash with his stereotypical jock stupidity and collection of pastel teddy bears in his closet, which, personally, I think is a euphemism for something. This is gonna be a horribly generic ghost story. Fun fact: Seele loosely translates into ghost.

“Think you’re brave enough, Fenton?” Dash’s hulking form cast Danny into shadows from the late afternoon sun. They stood in front of a rickety looking old house. Shutters were hanging from their hinges and yellowing paint peeled off the rotting wooden siding. A light breeze rustled the overgrown lawn and made the door creak open a few inches.  
There was never a more obviously haunted house. And Dash the genius, decided that it would be a great idea if He bullied Danny into staying the night in the house with him. Danny brought his sleeping bag, and a backpack full of snacks, water, his computer, the Fenton Thermos, and some movies. Dash had forbidden him from bringing his phone, so he brought the Fenton Phones, in case the haunting rumors happened to be true, which was becoming less and less of a possibility with each step closer to the house.  
The two boys were standing on the front steps, ready to go in.  
“You first, Fenton.”  
“What? You scared Dash?”  
“N-no. I just want to make sure you don’t run off.”  
“Suuuuure, Dash. Whatever makes you feel better.”  
“Shut up, Fenton.”  
The boys stepped inside and set their stuff down in the entryway. The door, of course, in true haunted house fashion, slammed shut behind them. Danny learned that Dash screams like a five-year-old.  
“Geez, Dash. Calm down. It was just the wind.” Dash stopped all movement and turned to look at Danny slowly, moving his whole body stiffly.  
“Don’t you dare say that, Fenton. Because it’s gonna end up being something that is definitely NOT the wind and we’re both gonna die horribly. And don’t go suggesting that we split up or go investigate the basement or trip when we’re running for our lives. Alright?”  
Danny blinked at Dash.   
“Alrigh-”  
“And NO SEX. DO NOT HAVE SEX FENTON, THAT IS A 100% GUARANTEE OF A VIOLENT DEATH, FENTON.”   
Danny was very confused.  
“Okay, then Dash. Whatever you say. I’m not interested in you anyways.”   
Dash spluttered and stuttered out  
“I-I n-never said I-I was interested i-in you, F-fenton.”  
Danny gave him a flat look and tilted his head  
“You’re the one who started screaming about sex, Dash.”  
Dash blushed a deep red and mumbled incoherently under his breath. Danny cocked an eyebrow and unrolled his sleeping bag on the living room floor. Dash jumped into action and quietly unpacked his bag. Pretty soon, Danny got bored with sitting around.  
“Sooo… Want to go explore?” Dash’s head snapped up and his eyes grew wide.  
“W-what?”  
“We could look around a bit. I’m bored.”  
“You’re in a haunted house and you’re bored.”  
“You’re forgetting who my parents are, Dash. I live in a haunted house.”  
Dash looked down, embarrassed. How could he have forgotten that Fenton’s parents were the town freaks?  
“Oh. Yeah. Let’s go.” Dash stood up and started walking off in the direction of the kitchen.l Danny hopped up after him and stepped after him.  
The kitchen was cold and empty. A family portrait hung crookedly from the wall. Dash opened the fridge, and a rotting smell came wafting out.  
“Ugh. What is that?” Danny started choking and put a sleeve over his face. Dash coughed and covered his nose with his letter jacket. He leaned into the fridge and nearly gagged at what he saw.  
Completely rotted food was laying on the top shelf. It looked like it may have been a thanksgiving dinner. Insects crawled away from the light and their bodies lay at the bottom of the fridge in heaps.  
“Nngh. Shut it. Shut the door.” Danny waved his hand at the door with the other hand still clamped over his mouth. Dash slammed the door shut in one fluid motion.  
“Gross. There’s nothing in here.” Dash ran out of the room, leaving Danny to roll his eyes and trudge after him.  
Danny ran straight into Dash, who had stopped right in the entryway from the Kitchen to the Dining room.  
“Watch it, Dash.” Dash stayed frozen in his place and whimpered.  
“Dash, what is it?” Danny pushed past Dash and into the Dining room. He froze.  
In all six seats was a too-brightly colored, slightly transparent family. They were dressed in fifties clothes. The mother was dressed in a yellow dress with blood red high heels and lipstick, the daughter was dressed in fuschia pink, her red hair done up in pigtails. The father was dressed in a blue tuxedo with a black bowtie. The three sons all had their hair slicked back and were wearing regular black and white tuxedos. Their colors were too bright, unrealistically bright. Their colors made them glow. They sat completely still. Not a single one moved.  
Danny stepped forward cautiously. And walked up to the mother. She didn’t acknowledge him or even blink. Danny was baffled by this. His ghost sense hadn’t gone off, and the room wasn’t even a little cold. He looked back at Dash, who was shaking, completely frozen in place.  
Danny waved his hand in front of the Woman’s face, but she stared forward. He tried poking her, but his hand went straight through her face. Danny walked around the table and did the same to each member of the family. He stood up straight and crossed his arms when he had gotten back in front of Dash.   
Then, the family simultaneously opened their mouths as far as they could, exposing their throats. Blood bubbled out of their mouths and a high pitched screeching shook the windows.   
Dash screamed, but stayed frozen. He was panicking, Danny realized. Danny grabbed Dash’s hand and dragged him back through the Kitchen, running all the way. He opened the door into the living room and slammed the door tightly behind them. They leaned against the door, breathing heavily, eyes shut tight. The screeching had stopped when they closed the door.  
“Wha-what was that?” Dash nearly screamed.  
“I-I don’t know. I-?” Danny shook his head. He couldn’t touch them, they were transparent, and they seemed a little dead. What were they. His ghost sense hadn’t gone off, nothing showed that there were even any ghosts out tonight. So what was that family?  
Once their breathing had leveled out, the boys looked up.   
The woman in yellow stood there, in the center of the living room. Her bright red hair curled neatly into a stylish updo and a lit cigarette dangled from her transparent fingers. She turned and looked at the boys. She smiled a tight, closed-mouth smile.  
“Hello there, boys. I’m Yvonne Seele.” She had a heavy german accent and her blue eyes flared with ambition.  
“I just wanted to know why you are in my house. I thought breaking and entering was illegal in America.” Dash just blinked at her, slackjawed. Danny spoke up first.  
“We’re very sorry, Miss Seele. We didn’t think anyone lived here.” Dash yanked Danny aside before she could say anything.  
“What are you doing? That’s a ghos-”  
“Dude, some ghosts are okay. She might not be malevolent. Stop interrupting and let me try to talk our way out of this before I have to break out my parent’s weapons.”  
“You brought your parent’s weapons?”  
“Of course. I’m not about to walk into a supposedly haunted house completely unarmed. I’m not an idiot.” Dash looked down at the floor and released Danny’s hand from his grip.  
“Terribly sorry about that, Ma’am. My friend here’s just a little shy.”  
“Oh, that’s alright, Dear. Tell me, what are your names?”  
‘I’m Danny and this here is Dash.” Dash waved his hand nervously.  
“Are you looking to buy my house? It’s up for sale you know.” Danny licked his lips, unsure of how to go on. Would this ghost blow up on him like the Lunch Lady if he refused, or would she let them go? He decided to play it safe.  
“We were exploring the neighborhood and decided to come in. We came here to pass the time.” Yvonne nodded and smiled. Her teeth were straight and white.  
“I see. Would you like a tour?”   
“Oh, no thank you ma’am. We should probably let you go. It’s getting pretty late.”  
Yvonne frowned and her eyes were cold.   
“Well then. I suppose I’ll just have to take you myself.” She grabbed the boy’s wrists and pulled them through the ceiling. She set them down in the attic and locked to door.  
“I died when I was 38. My husband was 40, and my children were all 8. quadruplets, you see. They were killed in the Dining room. I was too, but a little while afterwards. They were awful. My husband was ungrateful for everything I did for him. He taught my children to be the same. They went out and left me behind so many times. One time they didn’t tell me they were going to a campsite. I waited for two days without any word. That was when I started planning.” She looked up at Danny and Dash and smiled.  
“Color photos had just come out that year. So we all got in the car and drove to a portrait shop to take a family portrait. It’s hanging in the kitchen, now. You might’ve seen it.  
Any way, I went out and bought some warfarin. It’s a drug that thins the blood, and an overdose can make people bleed from the mouth, skin, basically any hole that it is even remotely possible for blood to come out of. I put it in their soup.  
They were dead in a half hour. They bled out of their mouths. That’s what you two saw in there. It was almost a month before I decided that I couldn’t live without them. I never moved their bodies. They were hidden in the basement.   
The police came when they got a call from the school. The children hadn’t been in for months, and I obviously stopped calling when I died.The police came and found our bodies and we were buried in St. Augustine’s cemetery on the fourth of may.”  
Yvonne stopped talking and her eyes slid towards Dash and Danny.  
“ Want to know what I’m going to do to you two boys?” They nodded shakily  
“I’m going to trap you here. It’s awfully dull here with nobody but shadows around for company.”  
Dash started backing away and Danny inched in front of him. Yvonne laughed.  
“Running isn’t going to get you anywhere, boys.” She lunged forward, and the world went dark.  
\---  
“They found two boy’s bodies in that old house on Alaska St. a couple of weeks ago. They were ripped apart. Completely dismembered. They don’t know who-or what could’ve done it.”  
\---  
A small boy put a flashlight under his chin and spoke in a low voice.   
“A hundred and fifty years ago, a family of six lived in this very house. They were a happy family, but one day, the mom went crazy and poisoned everyone and hid their bodies in the basement for months. Then she decided she couldn’t live without ‘em. So she killed herself the same way. She and her family were buried, but they say their ghosts still haunted the halls, when fifty years later, two boys went inside. They were doing what we are now. Want to know what happened to them?”  
The group of children sitting in front of him nodded quickly.  
“They-” the boy was cut off by the voice of an older teenager. His voice was a whispering echo and the colors he was wearing were too bright. His eyes were green and blue, his hair had a streak of white in it.  
“They’re still here.”


	6. Dia de los Muertos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, Dia de los Muertos is a Mexican holiday that celebrates the deceased members of a family, so of course I had to make it as sad/scary as I could. I hope you enjoy!

Maddie  
It was november first. The Mexican day of the dead. Meant to honor the deceased members of your family. It was meant to be a happy day, but I was consumed with grief and guilt.   
I just found out. I killed my own son. I killed my baby Boy. My sweet, clumsy baby. I killed him. His ghost stayed behind. He pretends he’s still alive. He’s pretty good at it. I didn’t even notice until I saw. I saw my beautiful baby Boy’s face melt away into Phantom’s face, some bizarre shape shifting power he had.  
My son was dead, and it was my fault. My own invention had killed him. Danny had an accident in the lab a few months back. He said he’d only gotten a little shock from it, but now I knew better.   
He died in that accident.  
What kind of mother has a lab full of potentially dangerous things, with the door unlocked, in a house full of teenagers?  
I wore black every day since I found out. I was mourning my little boy. Jack was confused, but he didn’t know that Danny was dead, and I couldn’t tell him just yet. It would break his heart.  
I sat in the dark of the living room. The neon lights from the sign glared into the windows and the stars faintly twinkled in the night sky. A blanket was hung around my shoulders and a cup of tea dangled from my fingers. Everyone else was asleep in the house.  
I’m pretty sure Jazz knew about the ghost. She always tried to get him out of the house whenever we made a new invention.  
The house was silent, save for the hum of electronics and the occasional snore from Jack. Suddenly, the front door squeaked open slowly, and in it came.  
The ghost of my son. Some vile ectoplasmic manifestation deluding itself into thinking that it was my Danny. It trudged in and sighed. It hadn’t noticed me yet, and walked into the Living Room.   
I needed to confront this ghost. It couldn’t keep masquerading around, pretending to be Danny. It was sick and wrong. My grief was consumed by anger. This glob of ectoplasm thought it could pretend to be my boy? I lifted the cup of hot tea, and threw it at the ghost’s head.  
It screeched in pain and surprise as the drink scalded its skin and the cup shattered against its head. Red blood dripped from the cut I had created, and the skin on the side of its face turned a bright red.  
Its hand was held up to its cheek, eyes full of confusion, fear, and pain.  
“You’re sick, ghost.” I mumbled  
“Wha-Mom? What-”  
“Stop usin my baby boy’s face, you monster. You’re nothing but a blob of sludge, and that’s all you’ll ever be. You will never be my Danny.”  
The ghost spluttered for a moment.  
“M-mom, I’m not a ghost. Why would you-?”  
“Because it’s true isn’t it? My baby died in that lab accident and you thought you could steal his face?” I was screaming at it now.  
“I’m not a ghost, Mom, I never died!” It kept trying to delude me into accepting it. Why wouldn’t it just give up already?  
“Yes, you are. You’re Phantom. You’re Phantom and you stole my Son’s face. Don’t call me Mom, you’re not my son.”  
The ghost froze and a look of disbelief grew on its face.  
“I am Phantom. But, you’ve got it wrong, Mom. I am your son, I’m still Danny, still me. The accident only made me half ghost. I can switch back and forth. Half human and half ghost.”  
The ghost summoned some rings that slid over it, transforming it from my baby boy into Phantom.  
“No. That’s impossible, ghost. Human and Ghost don’t mix. You’re deluding yourself.”  
Tears slid out of its eyes.  
“N-no, Mom, I’m not. I’m still half alive, please you have to believe me. I’m still Danny. I didn’t go to the ghost zone when I died. I’m still alive.” The ghost was pleading desperately with me. It looked and acted so much like Danny. My heart broke. Why couldn’t I let the delusion live? A small voice inside of me whispered Because they’re dangerous. But was it worth it to see my son’s smiling face again?  
“Danny?”  
The ghost sighed, relieved. A small smile slid onto its face.  
“Yeah, Mom, its me.” He leaned forward and embraced me in a chilled hug. Ghost bodies couldn’t be warm.   
Danny  
So it was a little rocky at first, it’s to be expected. I mean, the thing she hates most turns out to be her son? I would doubt a few things, too. I can’t ask her to automatically accept me out of the blue without any explanation, right? I was just kinda hoping that she would accept me like that. Or, at least, that she wouldn’t throw hot tea in a fragile cup at my head. It still stings a bit. But at least she accepted me in the end.  
After that little confrontation, I went up to my room, cleaned myself up, then went to bed.  
\---  
I woke up to my alarm buzzing right next to my ear. No ghosts had attacked that night, so I got a full night’s rest. I slid out of bed and pulled on my clothes. I walked downstairs and into the kitchen. Mom was sitting at the kitchen table, reading and sipping some coffee.  
“Hey Mom.” She stiffened at my greeting and sent out a forced  
“Morning.”  
I ignored this and rustled through the cabinets, looking for some cereal. I shook the dry flakes into my bowl and poured milk in it. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Mom looking at me. I turned and leaned against the counter.   
“So- have any questions or anything, about me?”   
She straightened her back a bit  
“How is it possible to be half ghost? I mean, you explained last night, but I want to know what happened to you in the portal.”  
“Uhh- Well- We think that it has something to do with DNA, or something. The electricity opened up my DNA so it could be changed, and the ectoplasm changed it. That’s just a theory, though.”  
“We? Someone else knows?”  
“Sam and Tucker were there when it happened, and Jazz figured it out later. She saw me transform.”  
“What about the crime spree? And the kidnapping? Christmas? Why did you attack me and your Father?”  
I looked down at my feet and sighed.  
“The ringmaster of Circus Gothica had this orb thing that could control ghosts, including me. He made me and the other ghosts he controlled steal everything. The first big invasion was led by this ghost named Walker. He’s got a bit of a grudge against me. He overshadowed the mayor and made it look like I was kidnapping him, when it was basically the other way around. I thought you and Dad were being overshadowed too, so I tried to get the ghost out of you. Christmas, I was being forced to live in a christmas poem by a ghost called Ghostwriter. He stole all of the presents and everything. It only looked like I did.”  
She nodded and smiled a little.  
“So what kind of powers do you have?”  
I told her about all of my adventures with discovering my powers, and learning how to control them. She drove me to school and dropped me off. I walked into the building on time for the first time in weeks.  
\---  
When I got home, Mom was waiting for me. She stared sternly at me. In one hand, she held a rumpled piece of paper. Oh. Report cards. They mailed them out the other day. I had completely forgotten.  
“Danny, these grades are unacceptable. I know you fight ghosts, but you have to try harder than this.”  
I sighed heavily.  
“I know, but every time I get the chance to sit down and study, a ghost attacks and I have to go before anyone gets hurt.”  
“Danny, you have to try. I’m grounding you for a wee-”  
“WHAT?! No! Mom, you can’t do that! I have to-”  
“Let me finish. I’m grounding you for a week. You will be under in this house at all times other than school, and ghost fights. You will call me if a ghost fight is going on for longer than ten minutes, and you will study until I say you can stop. Is that clear?”  
I paled slightly and nodded.  
“We’re clear.” She huffed and walked away, mumbling something that I barely heard with my enhanced hearing.  
“Jazz could try harder than that ghost any day.”  
My heart fell into my stomach. My throat clenched. It felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. I ran up to my room to start my homework. How could she have said that?   
My thoughts were interrupted by my ghost sense.  
\---  
It’s been two weeks since I found out that Mom knew.   
She glares at me when I mess up, and stays silent when I do something good. I’ve been trying really hard in school. I haven’t seen Sam or Tuck outside of school in days. I’m trying so hard to get her to love me again. She hasn’t said that she loves me in two weeks.  
Last night she made herself dinner. Dad and jazz were out and it was just me and her in the house. But she forgot to feed me. She never told me she made dinner. The only thing that tipped me off was the tupperware in the fridge the next day and the smell of pasta hanging in the air.  
There isn’t any light in her eyes when she looks at me anymore. Her eyes look dead and cold.  
I do all of the dishes,clean the house and everything so nobody else has to, but she either says it’s not good enough or nothing at all.  
She’s said things too. She think I can’t hear, but I can. She says things like,   
“Ghost couldn’t even vaccum right.” or “That Ghost better start getting better grades soon…”  
It just kinda stings that to her I’m nothing but a ghost. I’m not her son anymore, not human, in her eyes. But maybe if I work hard enough, she’ll see the truth.  
\---  
Month four since she found out, I guess. She openly calls me Ghost, now. I haven’t seen Sam or Tucker outside of school in months. I think they gave up on trying to hang out with me a few months back. My grades are stellar. I still protect the town and everything. But nothing is good enough for her. She mumbles even worse things under her breath now. Calling me “ Protoplasmic scum” or “Gross-Manifestation” and stuff like that. She started throwing things at me a week ago, and now she slaps me when I do something wrong. I just hope I can get her to love me again soon. Dad notices how she is around me, but he doesn’t know about me or any of the stuff she’s done to me. They get into a lot more arguments lately. Dad even left to stay at a hotel one night. She slapped him too. Jazz is in England as a part of a foreign exchange thing. She’s graduating later this year.   
\---  
Mom and Dad divorced when Jazz moved to college. Mom got custody of me, somehow. She pulled me out of school, planning on “Homeschooling” me or something. That was six months ago. Which makes it around a year or so, now, that Mom’s known. I can’t really tell what time it is. Mom locked me up in the basement three months ago. She dissected me in the first week, and now she does more weapons testing. She shoots me with whatever new weapon she has, then sees how it affects me. She’s been taking and using my ecto energy to fuel her new weapons. I don’t think she’ll love me again.  
\---  
It’s been a year. I’m skin and bones, my body is covered in scars, and I hate Maddie. I stopped calling her Mom four months ago. I haven’t heard my own name in a year. The only human contact I have is Maddie. I don’t think it’s worth it to survive the next weapon she tests on me.  
\---  
It’s been a year and a half. I was rescued three months ago by Sam and Tucker. Apparently, Maddie had banned them from even stepping on “Fenton Property”. I’m seventeen now. My Dad is getting custody of me and Maddie is being put behind bars.   
It’s hard to believe this whole thing was kicked off by a holiday.


	7. All Hallow's Eve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is probably the shortest one, but it’s the last one. These have been fun. I’m gonna miss ectober. Thank you so much to everyone who read, reviewed, favorited and followed. I hope you enjoy this last piece. Headless!Danny

So this isn’t actually how I was planning on spending my halloween. This is the exact opposite of how I wanted to spend halloween. I was supposed to go out with Sam and Tucker, in ghost form, so I could have a “realistic” costume that was pretty much free (if you don’t count the ½ of my life that I gave away.). We were going to meet downtown, where the best trick or treating was. Almost all the houses give out those king size candy bars every year.   
With my track record, of course something was going to happen.   
I was dressed up as a stormtrooper (Sam kept calling me short) and we were heading towards downtown. My ghost sense went off, so I transformed, ready to go.  
Skulker came after me with some special kind of Bowie knife and it’s all a bit blurry from there on. The only thing I know for sure is that I lost my head in that fight, and it hasn’t really come back yet.  
We were able to stitch it back on, but it still wobbles sometimes. The seams have torn so many times. Halloween was almost a week ago and my head still isn’t attached to my body again. I have had so many close calls. A few days ago Dash punched me and a few of the stitches tore. Thank goodness none of the ghosts have seen. I’d never hear the end of it.  
I am so sick of wearing turtlenecks and scarves. Nobody looks good in turtlenecks and people keep calling me a hipster when I wear scarves. I kinda like the hipster style, but I don’t look all that good in it.But those are basically the only things I can wear on my neck that aren’t too weird.  
I’m planning on going to see Frostbite about this after dinner about this because this is ridiculous. I am walking around without a head. It was a good halloween costume, but now I’m getting a little worried.  
\---  
I visited Frostbite and he started off by laughing then apologizing until he was blue in the face, then laughing again. Apparently I’m still alive because ghosts can control their bodies normally when something detaches. If I keep my head in place it should heal in about a month. It’s just the bones, muscles, veins, ligaments and tendons and whatever need to heal. But, until they do, only ectoplasm is gonna be pumping to my brain, so I’m gonna be acting more ghost-like, whatever that means.  
I don’t really see a problem with that.  
\---  
I hate ghosts. I started floating down the stairs this morning and I forgot that I had to eat. I forgot at lunch too. I nearly started crying when I dropped my pencil because of the heightened emotions and junk. I think I’m gonna kill someone. I can’t take this. I hate everything. I really want some salty chips or something. Something with salt.   
I really like salt. It’s a very nice thing, y’know?  
There is a fly. There is a fly on my wall. It moved, oh god. It’s walking down the wall. It keeps buzzing its wings.   
Ugh the idea of food makes me want to barf. Why did I even want chips of any kind? That sounds disgusting.  
I killed the fly. Its corpse is in the toilet. I’m not sorry. It deserved it. Making all of that noise and landing on my pillow that one time.   
Everything is driving me insane. I really want to talk to someone. Anyone. I want some contact. Human or ghost contact. I’m really bored.  
Hopefully my head will heal quickly.


End file.
